Conventional truck frame designs are manufactured to sustain heavy loading on the front-end of the truck. Accordingly, many current truck front-end structures have two side tubes on each side of the truck, assembled together to create a side “shotgun” assembly. One example of this is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,926,350 titled “Hydroformed Space Frame and Rearward Ring Assembly Therefor.” In a two-tube shotgun design the tubes are generally rectangular in shape and typically have a bend diameter of 1.5 inches. The use of multiple tubes requires additional material, fasteners, assembly time and adds weight to the vehicle.
Also two-tube shotgun designs for trucks are typically constructed of steel or other high-strength, cost-effective material in order to sustain loading targets for truck front-end structures. Those loading targets can be in excess of 350 kNm/rad for torsion loading; 250 kN/m for lateral loading; and 450 kN/m for bending. Steel easily satisfies these loading requirements, however, steel weighs substantially more than other materials such as aluminum. Thus the use of a steel shotgun assembly significantly increases the weight of the vehicle and decreases the overall fuel efficiency of the vehicle.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a truck front-end structure that is composed of a lighter weight material in order to improve fuel efficiency. It is also desirable to reduce the number of parts and assembly steps required to manufacturer the front-end structure.